Saha announces retirement

Louis Saha has retired from professional football, the Mail Online understands.

The former France international took to social network site Twitter to announce the news on his 35th birthday.

He spent the majority of his career in the Premier League having begun his career at Metz in France, and finishing it with six games at Lazio earlier this year.

His first spell in England was a loan spell with Newcastle United during the 1998/99 season, before signing for Fulham in 2000, where he helped the club achieve promotion to the Premier League in his first season.

Four and a half years at Manchester United followed his time in London, where despite suffering a number of injuries, he won two Premier League titles, a League Cup and the Champions League.

He then moved to Everton, where he received an FA Cup runners-up medal, scoring the fastest goal in FA Cup final history in the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea.

Brief spells at Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland followed, before he moved to Serie A in February.